This recipe from Kim looks amazing! This is the kind of thing my family would devour at the beach!

I love a Chex Mix for several reasons…I can make a huge batch at once, there are tons of different flavor variations, it’s great to have on hand for hungry kids that are constantly in and out of the kitchen, and it’s super easy to throw in a ziploc bag and carry with you on long car trips or to the beach. However, we’ve been experiencing quite the heat wave this week, so turning on my oven, and opening it every so often to stir up a batch of chex mix was not appealing to me.

Crock-Pot to the rescue!! Yes, the slow cooker comes in handy all year long! I couldn’t quite decide which direction I wanted to go with this mix…did I want sweet? Did I want spicy? I kind of wanted both, so that’s what I did. A sweet and salty combo with just a little bit of heat. You could easily increase the heat on this, but I knew my kids wouldn’t go for it, so I kept it mild. It actually sneaks up on you – the first few bites taste sweet and salty, and then you get a little kick from the cayenne.

And yes, those are little Minion cheese crackers. According to my 7 year old, the Minions taste better than the traditional square crackers! As with almost all chex mixes, you can add whatever you like or have on hand.

This past week has been a whirl wind of getting ready for vacation and tying up some lose ends on several projects. The main goal with our meals this week has been clear out the fridge.

In other news, I’m thinking it’s time to revamp these weekly posts on the meal plans. I have a few ideas in mind, but I’d love to know what you’d like to see.

Do you like seeing the sneak peek of the main dishes on the plans each week?

Do you like hearing a little about how my family gets dinner done?

Do you have other ideas for these posts or do you tend to just skip these altogether?

Leave a comment or drop me an email to let me know your thoughts!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

This past week was all about recovering from the wedding (which was awesome!). We ate leftover chicken salad, veggies and donuts. After three or four meals of that, we were craving some comfort food. After all of our company had gone, Sunday night we splurged on creamy pasta from Carinos. Yum!

On Monday I hit the grocery with the Whole Foods meal plan. (I used the plan for June 23. They can be used in any order and that one sounded especially good to me.) I love having that list and knowing what I’m going to be fixing for dinner!

Our strawberry patch has been doing really well this year. We’ve been picking about a quart of berries every night. Of course, that meant strawberry shortcake for dessert!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

Yesterday my oldest daughter got married. Last week was a blur of activity getting ready for the wedding. We did eat, but I’m not sure I can remember much of it!

For one meal, we ate Costco dinner – rotisserie chicken, watermelon, pretzel rolls and potato salad. I took the same thing to the family next door that night, because their dad fell and broke his leg a few days earlier.

The other highlight was P.F. Chang Lettuce Wraps. Oh my! That is a fantastic recipe! And it’s on the Traditional Meal Plan this week.

I’ll have more on the wedding and maybe a few pictures next week I hope!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

It’s the week before Meredith and Stephen’s wedding! Every day gets a little bit busier than the day before. Each time we check one thing off the list, two or three more items crop up. Crazy fun!

Last week Jim was out of town for four days. I’m proud to say that we didn’t have pancakes for dinner even once. That’s one of my fall back, easy meals when he is gone. Instead I shopped with one of the Traditional Plan grocery lists and I followed the recipes from it. No new recipe creation last week. It was so easy and we ate really well too.

I’m off to cross out a few more things from the wedding to-do list!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

I just realized that I never wrote and scheduled this post. I was browsing some blogs I like to read and realized that my post should have gone up. Had it on my list for Friday’s work and never checked it off!

What can I say? We’ve been crazy with wedding plans and ironing tablecloths for the reception and helping Meredith and Stephen get some things moved into their apartment. It’s not quite ready for them to move in yet, but it will be by the time the wedding rolls around.

Yesterday after carrying boxes to their third floor walk-up unit, I hit the grocery. I printed off the Traditional list for one of the weeks in June. Last week I shopped with a Traditional plan as well. I love being able to skip the planning. I just check the menu and decide which meal we’ll have that night. So easy.

My brain is pretty well fried on details right now. I told the kids I need a sign over my head that says “bandwidth exceeded”!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

Isaac was in the chorus of Guys and Dolls, put on by our high school homeschool group. All the kids did such a great job! We had Jim’s parents come down on Thursday night and my parent were here Friday and Saturday.

Mia spent last week sewing a lot of bags. Four bags in four days. I’m so proud of her sewing skills! I think she does great, especially since she’s just 11 years old. I can barely sew on a button. It’s good that I’ve got her around!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

Last week was not the most inspired eating we’ve ever done. I had a terrible cold all week. You know the kind where you aren’t sick enough to go to bed, but you aren’t very on top of things either? I actually made dinner every night, which sounds a lot more ambitious than the reality. The fact that I didn’t go to the grocery store last weekend due to feeling bad, didn’t help with our dinner situation.

This is one of those weeks where I say to myself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was someone on the internet who had meal plans I could buy that came with the grocery list already done for me?”. Oh yeah. That would be me. And as soon as I was feeling better on Thursday afternoon, I hit the grocery with color-coded list in hand!

Monday – I decided to turn some frozen rotisserie chicken into Thai Chicken Curry Soup. It was a simple, comforting meal that I ate on for the next few days.

Tuesday – Jim was out of town. We had pancakes, which we usually do at some point when he is gone. The boys always want some meat with their meals. I didn’t have any bacon and wasn’t thinking clearly enough to remember the breakfast sausage in the freezer. But I did have two packages of smoked sausage. I wasn’t too sure how that would be with pancakes, but it turns out that it’s pretty good. My motto: Use what you’ve got!

Wednesday – Still not feeling great. Still hadn’t been to the grocery. I decided to slice the second pack of smoked sausage into a can of baked beans. Fancy, I know. I did make homemade cornbread to go with it.

Thursday – I shopped for groceries finally! I used the Slow Cooker Freezer Meals list for May. Members have access to this now, but it’s scheduled for later this month. It was late when I got done shopping, so I picked up ham for sandwiches and made a quick Hawaiian Cole Slaw to go with them.

Friday – I made another video to show how to assemble the Slow Cooker Freezer Meals. And we had one of those meals for our dinner. I’ll share the video with you this week. My oldest daughter makes an appearance in this one!

This week, I’m hoping to do some recipe creating. Fingers crossed that I’ll have some successes to share with you soon!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans Sneak Peek

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.

Easter weekend threw me a little off schedule. We went out of town to be with family. Meredith’s cousins threw her a lovely bridal shower.

It was a great weekend, but when we got back in town I really needed to hit the grocery. I did that on Monday and tested the Traditional list for an upcoming week in May.

You can see from the photo which meals were planned for the week. I knew that I would be making some of those meals, but I also knew that I had recipes to create this week. No worries, since all the meals use common pantry ingredients I knew I would have what I need by sticking to the list.

Here’s how it all worked out this week:

Monday – I decided to buy ground pork instead of beef for hamburgers. It was a lovely evening, so we fired up the grill. Instead of detox salad, I served sweet potato fries and cucumbers and tomatoes.

Tuesday – I was looking forward to trying the Mojo pork chops, but the store didn’t have that type of marinade. I bought Caribbean Jerk instead. It was great! We had Pressure Cooker Mac & Cheese and broccoli with it.

Wednesday – I did another spin on Basic Chicken Skillet, this time giving it a Mexican flair. The resulting recipe combines elements of Mexican Beans and Rice with the Basic Chicken Skillet. Easy, quick and family friendly.

Thursday – I created yet another spin on Basic Chicken Skillet. This time I went with a stir fry. The homemade sauce turned out great. I used Napa cabbage in the dish. That was easy to swap out for the kale that the grocery list called for.

Friday – I’m writing this post on Friday afternoon. Jim and I decided we’ll have a date night tonight. I’m not sure what the kids will be eating, but it may be the grilled cheese and tomato sandwich that was on the menu. Everybody needs a simple dinner sometimes!

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

This is a great time to become a member of our Weekly Meal Plans. You get access to a whole month at a time. Since this is the end of the month, that means that you’ll be getting all of April and all of May when it posts next week. A whole extra month!

I hope your Easter weekend was wonderful. We spent the weekend with family. Meredith’s cousins hosted a wedding shower for her. Fun! My sister and her kids drove down for that, so we got to see all of my family and Jim’s family.

I created several new recipes last week, including a new take on Basic Chicken Skillet. I think you’ll love that dish as much as we did! I’ll be sharing it soon.

Simple Weekly Meal Plans

If you’ve been looking for a way to save time on menu planning, you’ll want to look into getting our Weekly Meal Plans. All the organizing and thinking is done for you. No grocery list making or side dish planning needed. I love using these and when I don’t have to do any recipe creation, this is my preferred way to shop and cook.